Reprint. Originally published: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003
The lady from Somerset -- Shadows of friends -- The morality of cynics -- Postmodernism and frivolity -- Tragicomedy of a Jew -- God will provide -- Aid for the first world -- Italy is not Bolivia -- The death of the great writer -- Trench town rock -- The prince of doom -- Under the skies of Jerusalem -- French identity -- The sign of the cross -- Ceausescu's house -- The joys of Necrophilia -- The old man with the bunions -- A bourgeois paradise -- Cassandra's prophecies -- The immigrants -- The devil's advocate -- A defense of sects -- A walk through Hebron -- Seven years, seven days -- Nudes in a classical garden -- Epitaph for a library -- The hour of the charlatans -- Elephant dung -- A maiden -- Mandela's island -- The other side of paradise -- Painting to survive -- The language of passion -- The city of nests -- The unborn child -- New inquisitions -- The weaker sex -- Predators -- The permanent erection -- The lost battle of Monsieur Monet -- A death so sweet -- Fataumata's feet -- The suicide of a nation -- The Alexandrian -- The life and trials Elián -- Pernicious futility